--- title: Jeff Sessions: Nancy Pelosi Calls on AG to Resign description: House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called on Jeff Sessions to resign after reports that he had talked with Russia's ambassador canonical: https://time.com/4688181/nancy-pelosi-jeff-sessions-russia-resign/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-02T07:37:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:36:52.977Z article:section: Politics og:title: Leading House Democrat Calls on Jeff Sessions to Resign og:description: The Justice Dept. said Sessions failed to disclose that he had spoken with Russia's ambassador og:url: https://time.com/4688181/nancy-pelosi-jeff-sessions-russia-resign/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltebdaff9dc846aa21/6988bcac0a4a22e3fa9cd22f/gettyimages-645995910.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi's Press Conference in Washington og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Leading House Democrat Calls on Jeff Sessions to Resign twitter:description: The Justice Dept. said Sessions failed to disclose that he had spoken with Russia's ambassador twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltebdaff9dc846aa21/6988bcac0a4a22e3fa9cd22f/gettyimages-645995910.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Leading House Democrat Nancy Pelosi Calls on Jeff Sessions to Resign > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Reuters](https://time.com/author/reuters/) ## Reuters Mar 2, 2017 7:37 AM UTC  House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi attends a press conference in Washington, on Feb. 27, 2017. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi attends a press conference in Washington, on Feb. 27, 2017. Samuel Corum—Anadolu Agency/Getty Images by [Reuters](https://time.com/author/reuters/) ## Reuters Mar 2, 2017 7:37 AM UTC (WASHINGTON) — U.S. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign on Wednesday after the Washington Post reported he[ failed to disclose ](http://time.com/4688090/jeff-sessions-russian-ambassador-trump-campaign/?xid=homepage)two meetings he had with Russia’s ambassador before Donald Trump was inaugurated as president. Citing Justice Department officials, the Post said Sessions spoke twice last year with Russia’s ambassador while he was still a U.S. senator. He failed to disclose the encounters when asked during his confirmation hearing to become attorney general about possible contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russian officials, the newspaper said. Pelosi, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, called for Sessions to resign and for an independent, bipartisan investigation into Trump’s possible ties to Russians. “Sessions is not fit to serve as the top law enforcement officer of our country and must resign,” she said in a statement. In a statement posted on Twitter later by his spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores, Sessions said he had never discussed campaign details with any Russian officials. “I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false,” Sessions said in the statement. Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was fired last month after he discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with Kislyak before Trump took office and misled Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations. The Washington Post said one of Sessions’ meetings was a private conversation with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak that took place in the senator’s office in September. This came at the height of what U.S. intelligence officials say was a Russian cyber campaign to upend the U.S. presidential race, the Post reported. RUSSIAN “MEDDLING” Along with Pelosi’s call for Sessions to resign, the Post said the previously undisclosed discussions could fuel new congressional calls for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Russia’s alleged role in the 2016 presidential election. As attorney general, Sessions oversees the Justice Department, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which have been leading investigations into Russian meddling and any links to Trump’s associates. Sessions has so far resisted calls to recuse himself. When Sessions spoke with Kislyak in July and September, he was a senior member of the influential Senate Armed Services Committee as well as one of Trump’s top foreign policy advisers, according to the Post. Sessions played a prominent role supporting Trump after formally joining the campaign in February 2016. At his Jan. 10 Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, Sessions was asked by Democratic Senator Al Franken what he would do if he learned of any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of the 2016 campaign, the Post reported. “I’m not aware of any of those activities,” Sessions responded, according to the Post. He added: “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians.” Officials said Sessions did not consider the conversations relevant to the lawmakers’ questions and did not remember in detail what he discussed with Kislyak, according to the Post. “There was absolutely nothing misleading about his answer,” Flores earlier told the Post. The Department of Justice and the White House did not respond immediately to requests by Reuters for comment. Justice officials said Sessions met Kislyak on Sept. 8 in his capacity as a member of the armed services panel rather than in his role as a Trump campaign surrogate, the Post reported. “He was asked during the hearing about communications between Russia and the Trump campaign – not about meetings he took as a senator and a member of the Armed Services Committee,” Flores told the Post. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4688181/nancy-pelosi-jeff-sessions-russia-resign/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4688181/nancy-pelosi-jeff-sessions-russia-resign/"},"headline":"Leading House Democrat Nancy Pelosi Calls on Jeff Sessions to Resign","datePublished":"2017-03-02T07:37:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:36:52.977Z","description":"The Justice Department said Sessions failed to disclose that he had spoken twice last year with Russia's ambassador","url":"https://time.com/4688181/nancy-pelosi-jeff-sessions-russia-resign/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltebdaff9dc846aa21/6988bcac0a4a22e3fa9cd22f/gettyimages-645995910.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Reuters","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/reuters/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltebdaff9dc846aa21/6988bcac0a4a22e3fa9cd22f/gettyimages-645995910.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi's Press Conference in Washington","caption":"Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi's Press Conference in Washington","creditText":"Samuel Corum—Anadolu Agency/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4688181/nancy-pelosi-jeff-sessions-russia-resign/","name":"Leading House Democrat Nancy Pelosi Calls on Jeff Sessions to Resign"}}]}] ```